Government investment continues to play a critical role in addressing England's housing shortage, and a newly approved affordable housing development in Wigan demonstrates how public funding is helping unlock brownfield regeneration projects across the country.  

Construction is expected to begin next month on a 65-home affordable housing scheme at the former Christopher Street Depot site in Ince following planning approval from Wigan Council. The development, which will be delivered through a partnership between Stonebond and Great Places Housing Group, will transform a long-vacant brownfield site into a new residential community whilst contributing to wider regeneration objectives across Greater Manchester.  

The scheme is supported by Homes England funding, highlighting the increasing importance of government-backed investment programmes in delivering affordable housing. The project forms part of a wider partnership established between Great Places and Stonebond in 2023, with the organisations committing to deliver more than 600 homes across Greater Manchester and Cheshire.  

Christopher Street sits within a wider national funding framework. Through the Affordable Homes Programme 2021-2026, the government has committed £11.5bn to support affordable housing delivery across England, whilst Homes England has allocated almost £5.2bn through strategic partnerships with housing associations and developers. Great Places is one of those partners, having secured £240.8m to support the delivery of almost 5,000 homes.  

Helen Spencer, Executive Director of Growth at Great Places Housing Group, said: “The Christopher Street development has been made possible through close partnership working, with support from Homes England funding helping to unlock the site and support delivery.”  

The project reflects several key government housing priorities, particularly the redevelopment of previously developed land. The National Planning Policy Framework encourages local authorities to prioritise suitable brownfield sites for housing, and the former depot site has remained vacant for many years before being identified by Wigan Council as a residential development opportunity.  

The development will deliver 65 affordable homes for social rent alongside new access roads, landscaping, public open space and infrastructure improvements. Social rent is government-subsidised housing with rents typically around 50-60% lower than equivalent private market rates. All homes at Christopher Street will be allocated through the Wigan Council housing register.  

Councillor Susan Gambles, cabinet portfolio holder for housing and welfare at Wigan Council, said: “The development at Christopher Street is a great example of delivering affordable housing on a brownfield site, with every single one of the 65 new homes being built set to be for social rent. 

“We work to develop brownfield sites as this can help to protect green spaces from development and can have a transformative effect on the local community. It means an often-derelict site is gone, replaced with new homes and a new community. 

“As well as this positive impact on the local area, successfully developing brownfield sites makes it easier to attract investment for future development, ensuring our borough benefits from public and private investment.”  

The comments reflect wider housing pressures facing the borough. Wigan Council's latest Housing Needs Assessment identified an annual shortfall of 283 affordable homes, once existing supply and committed development pipelines are taken into account. The assessment also concluded that 75% of future affordable housing provision should be delivered as rented accommodation, placing developments such as Christopher Street at the centre of efforts to address locally identified demand.  

The scheme also strengthens wider regeneration activity already taking place in the area through the neighbouring Willowbrook Fields development, where Great Places and Stonebond are delivering a further 106 affordable homes. Together, the 2  projects will provide more than 170 affordable homes in this part of Wigan.  

Spencer said: “Partnership working is fundamental to accelerating affordable housing delivery. By combining expertise across Great Places, Stonebond, local authority partners and Homes England support, we can unlock complex sites that might otherwise remain stalled, accelerate delivery and ensure affordability remains at the heart of the scheme.”  

The need for schemes of this nature remains significant. Research commissioned by the National Housing Federation and Crisis identified a requirement for approximately 145,000 affordable homes annually in England to meet projected demand, underlining the scale of the challenge facing housing providers, local authorities and government.  

Partnership-led delivery models are increasingly viewed as an important mechanism for addressing that challenge. By combining public funding, housing association expertise and private sector development capability, organisations can bring forward sites that may otherwise struggle to progress whilst ensuring affordability remains a central objective.  

As construction prepares to commence, the Christopher Street development provides a clear example of how national funding programmes, local planning policy and cross-sector collaboration are being used to tackle housing demand. Whilst modest in scale compared with national requirements, the scheme demonstrates how government investment can transform vacant brownfield land into much-needed affordable housing, whilst supporting wider community regeneration and helping local authorities address identified housing needs.